"You're not usually this caring and considerate... what are you up to, Rainbow Dash?"
Spike's birthday has been declared an official state holiday of the Crystal Empire, and Rainbow Dash has the most awesome of presents in mind... and a Sonic Rainboom is only the beginning...
Takes place during Season 4, in between "Simple Ways" and "Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3". Mildly AU, since for story purposes Spike finds out he's a hero in the Crystal Empire prior to "Equestria Games". Otherwise, this is canon-compatible.
Chapters (1)
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Thanks much! This story is intended both to give Spike some time in the spotlight for once (since we all know he deserves it) and also to try my hand at writing Rainbow as a main character, so it's great to hear they work well together.
Yeah, I really like having the option of using BBCode markup for color/font typesetting (in measured amounts, of course, and only where it makes sense as part of the story). And this was one case where it was all but a necessity, in order to provide the full effect.
This was a great story, I love the Sparity element in it for sure. I really hope we get to see more of this pairing from you since you did such a amazing job with it this time. They have to be the sweetest and most interesting couple in all of MLP to me personally.
This was a really good read!!!
I'd definitely read this again!!
Keep up the good work!!!
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Thanks much for reading, and for the feedback -- it makes my day knowing you got so much out of it!
I liked this! Great job!
I love this story, especially the ending with him and rarity.
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Thanks much the feedback, and I'm glad you liked it! This was always meant to be centered on Spike, though Rainbow inevitably wound up grabbing the spotlight somewhat. And I wanted to end it with some sort of resolution of Spike and Rarity's relationship, even if it still needed to be canon-compatible, so I'm really glad that part of it worked for you!
9385043it did, love the story too
Sparity bleh !! Sorry but it IS a childishly crush always has been. Other than that the story was great
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Well come on... Spike's the hero in this -- how could he not get the girl at the end?
Thanks much for reading and commenting!
This was a really sweet and fun little story. I rarely see much done with Spike and Rainbow interacting, so them together here was a rather special surprise. Also, great work with the characterization of the others - I cracked up at Pinkie's bucket list moment, among others. ^_^
Also, I really was impressed with the formatting for the Rainboom / rain-barrel effects. That was very cleverly done and really put me into the moment!
And finally, the Spike/Rarity stuff at the end was handled very, very well. I've never really been into the idea and just seen it as a lovesick crush that Spike had, but here it was handled very intelligently and maturely and I was really impressed with it all. Great work!
The whole portion detailing Spike's first ride was truly epic. It invoked images not unlike a jet screaming by, propelled through the air at top speed and making sharp, booming turns.
Personally, I tend to read and write simple slice-of-life stories, since human - or in this case pony - interactions tend to be what are of interest me most, so they are very conversational and simple reads... and I'm good with that! But on rare occasion I'll read a sequence written by someone else that honestly makes me envy their talent for the more action-packed genre. The aforementioned portion is definitely one of those times!
Admittedly, Rainbow and Spike doing this would've been way cooler in place of the Equestria Games episode... a lot less embarrassing for Spike too.
I do think the plausibility of Twilight letting Spike do something this dangerous is a tad finicky, but nevertheless you conveyed her coming to terms with the arrangement fairly decently.
I will say however, that I did not quite understand why when Rarity and Spike's feeling were mutual for one another, they chose to reserve a more serious relationship as a second choice, only to come to fruition if they could not find someone else to have a serious relationship with. If they truly love one another, why not now?
Anyways, the action portions in this were really great. Surprised this fic doesn't have more positive attention based on that fact alone. Thanks for the share!
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Thanks much for reading, and for your kind feedback. I really thought this would be more popular myself, because I enjoyed writing it and hoped other Rainbow and Spike fans would find it fun as well. I try to tell myself it just landed on a bad week or something.
I did pay extra attention to Spike's flight scenes, so I'm happy it shows. I've read stories about flight that describe it in technical terms as if you're watching it from the ground. I tried to combine that with in-the-cockpit descriptions, to give a better sense of actually riding along with Spike, seeing things from his point of view; that probably helps the immersion.
A large component of this story was giving Spike more of a central role, and more of a say in what goes on, which is why Twilight is so accommodating -- though I did have her insist on a safety belt, since I was pretty sure she'd at least go that far!
Well, on the one hand, I needed to have this fit in with canon: the next episode with them is Inspiration Manifestation, where Spike is evidently more of a confidante for Rarity than he has been before, though not yet at the level of a full-blown relationship. On the other hand, as I've noted elsewhere, I did want Spike to be the "hero" in this story and hence "get the girl" in a meaningful sense at the end. So I decided that Rarity, although not quite ready for a serious relationship yet, nevertheless wants to offer Spike some kind of commitment to reflect her opinion of him as a gentleman (or gentle-dragon).
Glad you got so much out of it, and thanks for reading!
This is totally one of the neater colored text usages I've seen in a while! (Though, I guess they don't show here.)
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It was a fun side-task coming up with it, and it isn't all that hard to do -- it just takes a lot of markup tags and some patience!
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It’s just such a payoff to see clever colored text be so nice and clean in the final version. Totally worth it.